Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Tôjin okichi (1930)

This late Japanese silent feature film was directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The film is presumed lost, with the exception of a four-minute self-contained fragment of a female dancer performing (presumably) to the gramophone record shown in the fragment.

This may be the earliest film to tell the Townsend Harris story.

This DVD edition has been mastered from a 9.5mm reduction print that is scuffed, scratched. However, the image is reasonably detailed.

The film is accompanied by a performance of the song on which the film fragment is based.

Supplemental material includes an introduction to the Digital Meme DVD series of Japanese silent films with a historical overview of the benshi tradition by Midori Sawata (2 minutes); a short film interpretation dance performance of a song Tôjin Okichi (1930) from a 9.5mm reduction print (4 minutes); a video afterword on the work of Kenji Mizoguchi and the evolving style of Japanese films by historian Tadao Sato presented in Japanese with English subtitles (19 minutes); and a four-page insert booklet in Japanese and English.

We recommend this home video edition of what remains of the film.

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